ONE of Liverpool's most famous boxing clubs will be turned into a TV studio as a nationwide search is launched to find the next champion.

ONE of Liverpool's most famous boxing clubs will be turned into a TV studio as a nationwide search is launched to find the next champion.

The Salisbury Club in Everton, known to many as the Solly, has been chosen as the base for a Channel 5 reality show aimed at finding the best young fighter in the country.

Boxing Academy will see a group of young boxers given just six weeks to train to Amateur Boxing Association standard under the expert guidance of some of the finest coaches in the sport.

Each show will follow the gruelling training regimes, friendships, rivalries, successes and disappointments of the potential future champions as they try to make the grade.

When it came to chosing a Northern base for the show, Channel 5 executives had no hesitation in picking the Solly after just one meeting with the club's chief, Alan Lynch.

Alan said: "We are one of the best known boxing clubs and one of the most successful in the country, so I wasn't that surprised that we were asked to do the show."

The Solly has produced a host of top class boxers, from Greg Evans in the 1970s to the likes of Carl Wright and David Burke more recently.

Alan Lynch has a good eye for a potential champion having honed his boxing knowledge as a highly respected amateur fighter and then as a cornerman and trainer.

Now he is one of the judges, alongside current Solly trainer Tony Challinor, former world middleweight champion Steve Collins and the Liverpool Echo's Nick Peet, who will decide who is the best young fighter in the North of England.

Each fighter will be put through their paces as they aim for a grand final in London on November 15.

The overall champion will be given a trip to sit ringside at a world title fight at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Alan added: "We will be looking for that something special that marks out a champion from the rest. It will come down to ability, power, but most of all, attitude."

All of the young fighters are classed as ABA novices but all already have boxing experience. Boxing Academy producer Dan Clapton says when news of the show first spread there were some people who thought it would be a Pop Idol style programme.

He said: "This is not a talent show. All the lads involved are boxers. We had a couple of non-boxers turn up and try to box but we had to tell them, 'stop there - it's not for you.' People do get hurt. To these lads, it's their life."